My Best Friend’s Exorcism: Mean Girls but with a lot more satanic possession (4 stars)
Boy George is the ultimate ‘career slasher’ — singer/DJ/fashion designer/soon-to-be jungle contestant. It is only fitting, then, that he also has the power to exorcise demons in Amazon Prime’s latest original film.
This trippy, 80s-infused horror-comedy follows best friends Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller) as they fight demons — both real and imaginary — while navigating life at a Catholic school in 1988. Directed by Damon Thomas and based on Grady Hendrix’s novel of the same name, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is like Mean Girls but with a lot more satanic possession.
The outlandish plot lines are, thankfully, grounded in a generous helping of 80s nostalgia. This starts with an iconic soundtrack — Take on Me and Karma Chameleon bookend the film — but the devil really is in the detail.
Abby and Gretchen’s morning routine features copious amounts of hairspray and a compulsory kiss of their Culture Club posters as they go out the door. CFCs and Boy George aside, My Best Friend’s Exorcism gives the experience of watching a tacky slasher-horror made in the 80s, with the themes even harking back to the ‘satanic panic’ of the era.
If this film was released the year it was set, it would already have achieved cult classic status.
Granted, the Amazon Original is more comedy than horror — you won’t lose sleep over it, but it might feel like you’re losing a little bit of your sanity with each passing minute.
The special effects are reminiscent of a decades old B-movie and that’s precisely the point. It’s traumatic enough to witness an 11-foot tapeworm being pulled out of someone’s mouth without it looking too real.
It’s the coming-of-age tropes, however, that make My Best Friend’s Exorcism intensely watchable. Bad decisions, unexpected glow-ups, and misguided drug-taking are almost as important to the plot as the actual exorcism.
The main characters are all struggling with their own metaphorical demons, and when these are played out on screen it’s painfully difficult viewing — but also hard to look away.
So, if you want to laugh with horror this spooky season — or reminisce about the 80s — watch My Best Friend’s Exorcism. The power of Boy George compels you.
